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The value of a good all-rounder is never in question. Andrew Ellis certainly fits that mould and was in sublime form during the Plunket Shield, form that ended with the honour of being awarded the Fujitsu Heat Pumps MVP title in the Plunket Shield.

The top of the MVP table is littered with the competitions leading wicket takers and run scorers, but Ellis ultimately led the MVP statistics with a consistent contribution of both runs and wickets. He was sixth highest run scorer with 819 which placed him sixth on the MVP batting table, which was led by world record holder Colin Munro (most sixes in a first class innings). Not quite as dominant with the ball, Ellis secured 26 wickets at 33.35 to finish 10th on the MVP bowling table.

Canterbury players dominate the key MVP spots with Ellis, Todd Astle and Peter Fulton all inside the top five positions.

“Winning the Plunket Shield for the second year in a row was an amazing achievement and having a player from our team win the MVP award is something we can all celebrate“ said Ellis.

Colin Munro and Stephen Murdoch had a fantastic campaign with the bat scoring 899 and 915 runs respectively. Both players scored 3 centuries but Munro (187.42) inched ahead of Murdoch (177.68) on the batting MVP table by a slender margin of less than 10 MVP points. Traditional statistics would have Murdoch slightly ahead of Munro but the MVP’s formula considers the positive effect of run rate among other factors, and Munro scored his 899 from only 869 deliveries, for a strike rate of 103.45 – his ability to advance the game and increase his sides chance of forcing a winning result was the difference.

Volts spearhead Jacob Duffey snared 36 wickets on his way to the top of the MVP bowling rankings with 168.68 points. Doug Bracewell was second to Duffey and also finished second to Ellis on the overall MVP table.